EXPANSION OF TERRITORY, 

EXPANSION OF TRADE 



An Address 



BY 



HON. WILLIAM P. FRYE, 

U. S. SENATOR FROM MAINE, 



BEFORE 



THE UNION LEAGUE OF PHILADELPHIA, 



March 17, 1900. 



EXPANSION OF TERRITORY, 

EXPANSION OF TRADE. 



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EXPANSION OF TERRITORY, 

EXPANSION OF TRADE. 



President Darlington : 

Gentlemen, if we will consider for a moment the constant 
demands that are made upon a Senator who faithfully, conscien- 
tiously and intelligently meets the duties of his high office, and 
add to these demands the responsibilities and the obligations of 
the Presiding Officer of the United States Senate, we can better 
appreciate the compliment that is paid The Union League 
to-night by the presence of our distinguished guest. I trust 
Senator Frye will pardon me for referrmg to a remark that he 
made when I had the pleasure of calling upon him in Washing- 
ton and invited him to address The Union League, After learn- 
ing the object of my visit, he replied, " I have declined at least 
one hundred invitations to speak, for the reason that I have not 
the time to give to the preparation that would be necessary. 
But," continued the Senator, " I have a speech in my mind that 
I would like to deliver to the American people, and there is no 
place in the United States where I should prefer to deliver it 
than in The Union League of Philadelphia." (Applause.) As 
an evidence of the sincerity of that graceful compliment, he is 
with us this evening ; and I may add that this is the first occa- 
sion that he has spoken during the present session of Congress. 

5 



6 

Senator Frye will 'speak to us upon the " Expansion of Territory 
— Expansion of Trade," introducing his subject by a reference 
to the Treaty of Paris of 1898, which he, as a member of the 
United States Peace Commission, was largely instrumental in 
formulating. I have very great pleasure in introducing to you 
the Honorable William P. Frye, United States Senator from the 
State of Maine, and President jpro tern, of the United States 
Senate. 



Senator Frye said : 

Gentlemen of The Union League : I dislike exceedingly to 
open a speech with an apology, for my experience in such case 
is that the apology is likely to be better than the speech ; but 
since I accepted the invitation to address The Union League of 
Philadelphia, I have not had one moment of time in which to 
prepare an address suitable for an occasion like this, or for such 
an audience. Your presiding officer has well said that I could 
not refuse— as I ought to have done — to address your League. 
It has had my profoundest respect from the early days of the 
Civil War down to now for its wonderful services for our blessed 
Ilepublic. (Applause.) 

Humanity and a decent self-respect compelled the Congress 
of the United States to declare war against Spain. The conflict 
was short, sharp, decisive, and in a few months that proud em- 
j^ire was a suppliant for peace. We cheerfully yielded to the 
request, for we hate war and love peace. The President of the 
United States appointed five Commissioners, to meet at Paris 
five Commissioners to be appointed by the Queen Regent of 
Spain, to agree upon the terms of peace. Your Commissioners 



are well known to you, for they were all men who had been for 
a considerable length of time in the public service. They were 
none of them skilled in diplomacy. I, perhaps, was as much of 
a diplomat as any of them, and I simply knew what I wanted, 
and was bound to get it if I could. 

The Spanish Commissioners were high-bred gentlemen ; three 
of them had been ambassadors to foreign posts, and the Presi- 
dent of their Commission, Senor Rios, was said to be the best 
ecclesiastical lawyer in Spain. He was the President of the 
Spanish Senate, and was certainly as resourceful a man as I ever 
had the honor to meet. Our relations with these Commissioners 
were, as a matter of course, courteous and friendly all through 
our negotiations. We felt for them a profound sympathy, be- 
cause we knew very well that whatever treaty they signed, and 
we agreed to, was simply the death-warrant for them politically 
in their own country. 

The French Government treated us with great courtesy, and 
the French press with great discourtesy. Our Commission met 
every morning at ten o'clock, and the Joint Commission met, 
whenever necessary, at two o'clock in the afternoon. The pro- 
ceedings were conducted through an interpreter. 

The first demand which the Spanish Commissioners made on 
us will possibly seem somewhat remarkable to you. It was that 
we should promptly restore the status quo in Manila; release all 
of the Spanish prisoners ; restore their arms which we had taken 
from them, and pay damages for all the property we had de- 
stroyed, for all the wounds we had inflicted, and for all the 
deaths we had caused. Now, there was in law a solid founda- 
tion for that demand. Ordinarily a protocol provides that it 
shall take effect at some future day, in order that notice may be 



8 

given to the belligerents, wherever they may be, that hostilities 
are to cease. This protocol of ours took effect the moment it 
was signed. The battle of Manila was fought three days later. 
Now, under well-settled principles of international law, while 
the officers who conducted the battle would not be held respon- 
sible, if they had no notice (and of course they had none), the 
country itself would. 

Our reply to this demand was that in the protocol they had 
given us a temporary sovereignty in Manila and the Bay. A 
temporary sovereignty carries with it all the responsibilities and 
obligations of a real sovereignty — the obligation to preserve 
peace, to protect life and property, and in our judgment, with 
ten thousand Spanish prisoners within the walls of Manila, to give 
them their freedom and their arms, with ten thousand Tagalos just 
outside, would not be preserving peace, or protecting life or 
property, especially when the first offence which Aguinaldo and 
his troops took to the United States was, when they asked to be 
permitted to loot the city of Manila, Merritt and Dewey refused 
to permit a single armed Tagalos within the walls. 

Our reply to the question of damages was that when we 
reached that, in the consideration of the treaty, we would de- 
termine as to what should be done. 

The next demand the Spanish Commissioners made upon us 
was that we should accept the sovereignty of the island of Cuba, 
and in this demand they persisted without cessation for two solid 
months. Senor Rios held that, as a matter of law, the bonded 
debt of Cuba, amounting to $600,000,000 or $700,000,000, be- 
ing secured by a mortgage on the revenues of the island, would 
follow the sovereignty. We refused to accept the sovereignty 
of the island, on the ground that Congress had instructed us not 



9 

to accept it. They then demanded that we should guarantee 
these bonds, and we refused, as a matter of course, saymg to 
them that we entered upon the war for humanity's sake, and for 
no other, that we expended our money, and wasted the lives of 
our noble soldiers, in order to prevent the despotic power of Spain 
from further exercising its cruelty in the island of Cuba, and 
gamed no possible benefit from the result. There could not 
possibly be any reason why we should guarantee the Cuban 
bonds. 

These demands were pressed upon us without cessation for 
nearly two months, and every day it seemed to us that negotia- 
tions must inevitably be broken off and the war be resumed. 
I cabled to the President that the negotiations would not result 
in a treaty, and I trusted that he, as commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy, the moment negotiations should cease, would 
seize upon the archipelago of the Philippmes, and take the 
Caroline Islands, too. 

It became evident to us that something radical, emphatic, de- 
termmed, must be done ; and we finally concluded that we must 
lay down an ultimatum, give them a certain number of days in 
which to accept or reject it, and if they rejected it, end the ne- 
gotiations. Now, gentlemen, that was not an easy thing to do. 
An ultimatum, to have power, must have the agreement of the 
five Commissioners, and the five Commissioners were as far 
apart as the two poles. There were four propositions before us — 
one to take the island of Luzon alone, another was to leave the 
archipelago, another to take a coalmg and naval station, nothing 
more, another to take all we could get. I was for takmg all we 
could get. Now, there were five Commissioners holding these 
divergent views, who could not be driven, who could not be 



10 

cajoled, with whom sophistry would not possibly have any effect, 
and yet who must, by logical discussion, be brought to a unani- 
mous agreement. It took us several days to bring that result 
about. How was it accomplished? I can only give you a 
feeble illustration of some of the arguments. 

Take the proposition to leave the islands. Could that be en- 
tertained ? There had been a rebellion in that archipelago, and 
Affuinaldo and seventeen of his chieftains had been in exile in 
Singapore. They there met the United States Consul, who sug- 
gested to them that it was a good time to renew their rebellion ; 
that Dewey was going over there, and Merritt was to be there. 
They accepted the suggestion, and went to Hong Kong to join 
Dewey ; but Dewey had sailed for Manila. We gave them a 
United States cutter, with the American flag flying over it, and 
carried them over to Manila. Dewey gave them what guns he 
had captured from the Spaniards, and they immediately formed 
an army. 

Now, there was no alliance between them and the United 
States, no promise made in writing, or orally ; but at the same 
time these men were helping to fight our battles. "VVe could 
have conquered Manila without their help, but very likely they 
saved the lives of many of our soldiers, and aided us in our un- 
dertaking. They whipped the Spaniards every time, and con- 
quered province after province. They took many Spanish pris- 
oners. They were practically our allies, although they were not 
our allies in fact, or by promise, oral or written. Now, could 
this great Republic, under these circumstances, leave these men 
to the tender mercies of Spain ? Is there a man here who would 
not have blushed with shame for his Republic if it had been 
thus guilty ? 



11 

Take the coaling and naval station. Where would you locate 
it? At Manila? Well; but Mindora is within gunshot of 
Manila. With Mindora in Spain's possession, or Germany's, or 
Russia's, you would have to make of your coaling or naval 
station, to have it of the slightest earthly use, a Gibraltar, and 
protect it with a tremendous armed force. Again, if you only 
took a coaling and naval station, and left the rest of the archipel- 
ago in the hands of Spain, you still leave these friendly Tagalos 
to the tender mercies of Spain. It is not necessary for me to 
say to this intelligent audience what the tender mercies of Spain 
are. 

Again, shall we take Luzon alone ? If we do, what will we 
do with it? We will give it just as good a government as you 
have in Pennsylvania. (Laughter.) We will relieve the peo- 
ple from slavery, from all unjust and wicked taxation. We will 
respect the personal rights and freedom of the inhabitants. We 
will regard their religion. We will give them a real republican 
government, insuring to them content, happiness, comfort and 
security. How long will it be before the rest of the islands will 
find out what the Tagalos have received from the United States 
of America; and, when they find out, how long will it be before 
they will rebel ; and if they rebel, how long will it be before our 
Tagalos, sympathizing with them, will fit out filibustering expe- 
ditions to help them, send them arms, send them money ? Why, 
you would have one perpetual war with Spain. Your peace 
would be a farce — and that contention was surrendered. 

We finally agreed unanimously upon what ? That Spain must 
surrender the sovereignty of Cuba ; that we would not take it ; 
that we would have nothing whatever to do with the Cuban 
bonds ; that whenever Cuba was ready to form a stable govern- 



12 

ment, we would give her the right to do so, and the sovereignty 
would be hers. Next that Spain must leave Puerto Rico, yielding 
the sovereignty to us. Spain had been a menace to the United 
States long enough, and must leave forever and ever this hem- 
isphere. 

Again, we must have Guam, a landing place for our cable. 
Again, Spain must yield the sovereignty of the entire Philippine 
archipelago to us ; that we would pay Spain $20,000,000 ; that 
we would pay our citizens for damages which they had suiFered 
from the Spanish army in Cuba, and Spain would relieve the 
United States from all claim, national or individual, thus taking 
care of that claim which I mentioned as their first demand ; that 
we would return to their homes the Spanish prisoners, and that 
Spain should return to Cuba and Puerto Rico and the Philippine 
archipelago all of the men she had sent into exile from those 
coimtries. 

We cabled that ultimatum to the President of the United 
States, and he cabled in reply that it was eminently satisfactory 
to him. Then we had it carefully translated into Spanish and 
delivered it to Senor Rios, and gave him three days in which to 
accept or reject it, informing him that, if he rejected it, negotia- 
tions would promptly stop. The next day he wrote a letter to 
the Chairman of our Commission, asking if we really meant it. 
He received a reply which seemed to satisfy him that we did. 
That was the difference between non-diplomacy and diplomacy. 

Now, why did we agree to pay $20,000,000 ? We were obliged 
to. They were compelled to accept whatever we demanded or 
war, one of the two ; there was no escape. Different motives 
controlled our action in that regard. So far as I was concerned, 
from an examination I had made, I became satisfied that the 



13 

precedents were all in favor of a payment for improvements made 
in territory acquired even by war. Where one nation at war 
succeeded in acquiring provinces from another, the rule was for 
the conquering nation to pay for any improvements which had 
been made in the territory so acquired. 

For instance, Germany in her treaty with France paid France 
320,000,000 of francs for improvements which France had made 
in Alsace and Lorraine. Again, most, if not all, of the South 
American Republics, when they secured their independence from 
the mother country, either assumed a portion of the debt of the 
mother country, or else paid so much money to her. It did not 
seem to me that this great, rich and powerful Republic could 
afford to be less magnanimous to a bankrupt and defeated foe 
than Mexico could to Spain, from whom she had won her inde- 
pendence by war. Do you think so ? 

Again, I said awhile ago that it was exceedingly doubtful 
whether any treaty could be made. Some thought that if a cer- 
tain amount of money could be offered in our ultimatum, it 
might influence the Spanish Commissioners possibly, as it would 
afford them, to that extent, an excuse at home, and induce them 
to sign the treaty ; and, if it did, that it was better for us to pay 
it, because, if we failed in our negotiations and war broke out, it 
would not take many days to spend perhaps a good deal more 
than $20,000,000, and with it probably precious lives. These 
largely were our reasons for paying the $20,000,000. 

Had they made any improvements in the archipelago ? They 
had erected seventeen first-class lights and eighteen second-class 
lights ; they had spent a great deal of money in the harbor of 
Manila and outside of it ; they had built new barracks for five 
thousand soldiers, which we have been occupying ever since — very 



14 

fine barracks ; they had started a dry dock at Subig, and all the 
materials for it were there. We did not make an inventory of 
these thiugs, but put them into a lump sum, and I do not believe 
that any American citizen, understanding it, feels to-day that we 
did a wrong thing in paying the $20,000,000. 

Why did w^e agree to send their prisoners home ? We had 
them on our hands. Spain could not have sent them home, and 
would not have done so in years. She had no money, no credit, 
and it was far better for us from every point of view to do so. 

Why did we agree to pay the losses which our American citi- 
zens had suffered in Cuba ? Could we turn our American citi- 
zens, who were entitled to our protection in Cuba, and whose 
property had been destroyed there while we were playing the 
part of a neutral, and our ships of war, at an expense of $3,000,- 
000 or $4,000,000 a year, were pursuing every supposed filibuster, 
and protecting the interests of Spain — could we afford to turn 
these American citizens and their losses over to be remunerated 
by Spain? When would she do it? Some time in the twenty- 
first century, not before. (Laughter.) 

Why did we have any trouble in the archipelago ? There was 
not the least likelihood of it when we were in Paris. General 
Whittier and General Merritt were before our Commission, and 
they testified that the most cordial feeling existed between the 
Tagalos and the United States troops ; that while there had been 
a little friction when they refused to allow the Tagalos to loot 
the city of Manila, they had gotten over it. They said that it 
would not take more than three or four regiments of white men, 
and as many regiments of natives, with white officers, to control 
the archipelago, and that the revenues of the islands would a 
great deal more than support the entire administration of 



15 

affairs, military and civil. They knew what they were talking 
about. 

How then did it happen that we have this trouble? Aguinaldo 
had his spies in Paris every day we were there, and they reported 
to him just exactly what we believed — that there would not be 
any treaty. Then Aguinaldo said to the rich Tagalos, and I 
think honestly then, "Here, there is not going to be any treaty, 
and the war is to be renewed. I must have money, more men, 
and I must have equipment for men. You must furnish me with 
money." They furnished him with money, and he bought arms 
and provisions for his army, which increased his force very largely. 
The treaty was signed. Then it was sent to Washington, and it 
came before our Committee on Foreign Relations, who reported 
it immediately to the Senate. If it had been ratified in ten days, 
there would not have been any trouble in the archipelago. It 
was not. It was in the United States Senate for nearly three 
months, if not quite, and most unfortunate speeches were made 
in the open session of the Senate, not intended to do so, but 
really giving encouragement to Aguinaldo. 

Aguinaldo's spies were in Washington for two months, dur- 
ing which time we did not believe that we could ratify the 
treaty. They cabled Aguinaldo again and again to that effect, 
and he said to the rich Tagalos, "The treaty is not to be ratified, 
the war is to be continued. I must have more money, more men 
and more arms." And he secured more money, more men and 
more arms. Then the little fellow lost his head, thought he was 
all powerful ; for every time he had met white men he had con- 
quered. He had never at that time met United States troops in 
battle, and he came to the conclusion that he could drive the 
American forces out of the archipelago, make himself die- 



16 

tator — a despot — and then he deliberately made war upon our 
troops. 

I repeat, if that treaty had been ratified in ten days there 
would not have been any war in the Philippine archipelago. 
Whether these men, who probably were honest in their convic- 
tions, intended it or not, my judgment is that the responsibility 
for the war is upon them, upon the press and the statesmen, and 
the men who are not statesmen — the men, who in the city of 
Philadelphia, the other day, according to the press, denounced 
Mr. McKinley, President of the United States, as a murderer. 
(Cheers.) 

Now we have these possessions. They are ours as honestly as 
Arizona is ours — as honorably acquired, and in their acquirement 
we dealt not only honestly, but magnanimously and generously, 
with Spain. Are they to be of any use to this Republic ? 

With your permission, gentlemen, I propose to discuss this 
question for a while from a commercial point of view. I am 
aware that the anti-imperialists assert that this is a sordid view 
to take. I believe that the man who the other day called the 
President of the United States a murderer is endowed with sus- 
ceptibilities which would be shocked at the idea of discussing 
commercial interests in connection with our recent acquirement ; 
but I, myself, have an idea that anything which may affect the 
interests, the prosperity and the well-being of seventy millions of 
people is not unworthy of discussion before an American audi- 
ence. 

After we had lived in this country of ours for many years, 
having the best market in the whole world, and a consumption 
which took care of almost all our products, unfortunately lead- 
ing us to that dangerous contentment which prevented our look- 



17 

ing abroad throughout the world for foreign markets, we, through 
a bitter and cruel experience, learned that we had a surplus, an 
unsold surplus, that our production was beyond our consumption 
— and all intelligent men knew that such a condition was death 
to prosperity. Tariffs could not save us, legislation could not, 
nothing could except to find a place somewhere to sell that sur- 
plus. The problem of how to secure a foreign market was a 
most serious one. Our commercial rivals were entrenched every- 
where in the world. They had subsidized steamship lines to 
every commercial port ; they had banking facilities everywhere ; 
they had long-established agencies and a perfect familiarity with 
the requirements of trade all over the world, and we had — noth- 
ing. Now there was something for us to do — a problem for us 
to work out, and it was a most serious one; yet we entered upon 
it with courage and sagacity, and the city of Philadelphia took 
the lead in working it out. You established the Philadelphia 
Museum, one of the best instrumentalities that has yet been 
found in this country for promoting foreign trade. (Applause.) 
That museum, from that hour to this, has been at work finding 
markets for American products, instructing our merchants and 
our manufacturers all over the United States as to how and where 
these markets could be found, what kind of goods should be sent 
to them, and in what manner of packages. 

Again, we are indebted to the city of Philadelphia. There 
was established in this country the great organization known as 
the National Manufacturers' Association, embracing a member- 
ship from almost every State in the Union, and one of the best 
business men of the city of Philadelphia, Mr. Theodore C. Search, 
is to-day at the head of it. That association went vigorously at 
work. It sent twenty-five of its most sagacious agents down 



18 

into South and Central America to see what the requirements of 
trade were there. I am ashamed to say that they had to go 
across the ocean under a British flag, and then back again under 
the same flag to reach Brazil. That association has been at work 
all over the world. 

Again, the American-Asiatic Association was formed in New 
York, and the American-China Association formed, the purpose 
of the two being to find out where and what we could sell in the 
great East. 

Again, we instructed our consuls, in all the localities where 
they were, to make daily reports of the conditions and require- 
ments of trade, and these were published and scattered broad- 
cast all over the United States, amongst the business men of the 
Republic. 

Again, two or three of your great railroad lines sent out their 
agents to search for markets. 

Again, private corporations all over the country instructed 
their agents, their superintendents, in some cases their presidents, 
to visit these foreign lands and inquire into this matter of mar- 
kets. What was the result? 

In 1897 the balance of trade in our favor was a little over 
$300,000,000; in 1898 it reached $420,000,000. Our surplus 
was sold and our prosperity continued without interruption. 

How was this accomplished? It is easy enough to see how we 
sold our wheat, our tobacco and our cotton. Hungry men and 
the necessities of the manufacturers made a market for them. 
But how could we sell our manufactured products? That was 
the serious problem. Our rivals were making these products at 
one-half of our wage cost, and were using the same machinery 
we were. How did we succeed in selling them? Partly as I 



19 

have already told you — perhaps quite largely. But the advan- 
tages were not all with the people abroad, the disadvantages not 
all with us. Our iron and coal were more accessible than theirs ; 
our workingmen were better paid, better fed, better housed than 
theirs, and did better work. Our skilled mechanics had more 
inventive genius than theirs, as much as theirs combined. 

Besides that, transportation, which is a very important item in 
the cost of the finished product, was cheaper in the United 
States, on rail, than anywhere in the world. I know that it is 
the habit to rail at railroads. I am not a railroad magnate, nor 
a rich monopolist, but I do not hesitate to affirm that we owe 
our prosperity in this matter very largely to our railroads. I 
saw, in the London Economist more than four or five years ago, 
when our railroad rate was one-third more than it is to-day per 
ton per mile, a statement that if the rate in England had been 
as low as ours, England alone would have saved $100,000,000 
that single year on railroad freights. 

Again, our coastwise, river and lake fleets have played a very 
important part in this commercial drama. There the freights are 
still lower than by rail, and those rates have been reduced in the 
last ten years even more rapidly than those on rail, by reason of 
increasing enormously the size of our vessel carriers. To-day a 
small vessel cannot carry freight; and when I say to-day, I am 
not talking about the last year or two, when there has been on 
our part and on that of Great Britain such a scarcity of ships — 
I am talking about a normal condition of affairs. All intelli- 
gent men know perfectly well to-day that with the foreign car- 
rying trade we have nothing to do whatever ; we are out of it. 

Our ships are never seen anywhere in the world. Four ships 
of the American Line carry the American flag, and cross the 



20 

\vater, but that is about all there is to it. Last year, with all our 
enormous exports and imports to and from Europe, our ships did 
not carry quite two per cent., and in all the world they did not 
carry quite nine. The Produce Exchange made a report a few 
years ago in which they asserted that 1750 ships cleared from 
the port of New York in that year for foreign markets loaded 
with oiu" products, and that seven of them carried the American 
flag. All of you know, and at the same time are very apt to 
forget, that we have such a thing as a lake, coastwise and river 
fleet. Why, gentlemen, we have the finest one in the whole wide 
world. We have a larger one than Germany, France and Eng- 
land combined in the same trade. To-day our tonnage in that 
fleet, of documented and imdocumented vessels will, in my 
opinion, reach 7,000,000. The Suez Canal, which is supposed to 
carry the commerce of the world, passed last year a tonnage of 
nearly 10,000,000. The Sault Ste. Marie, in eight months of 
last year, passed a tonnage of 25,000,000 — more than entered 
London or Liverpool in the same time. It took 3,500,000 ton- 
nage to carry the freights on the Mississippi river alone last year. 
That fleet carried last year 168,000,000 tons of freight and 
200,000,000 passengers. Your ships in the foreign carrying trade 
are unprotected and compete with ships that are protected. Your 
coastwise, lake and river fleet has been protected for a hundred 
years by absolute prohibition, no foreign ship being permitted to 
engage in it under any condition. There is the difference between 
protection and non-protection. (Applause.) 

How about the future ? Are we going to need foreign markets ? 
Take your manufactured product alone, which must meet the 
pompctition of all Europe in all the markets of the world, you 
paying double the wages they pay. 



21 

Is there to be a surplus of manufactured product? Last 
year we exported of manufactured product $1,000,000 worth 
every day, and yet consumption at home was greater than it ever 
had been in any year of the history of this Republic. A few 
years ago your export of manufactured goods, as compared to 
that, was a mere bagatelle. In these few years it has grown 
marvelously. Your surplus product is increasing every hour we 
live. It is bound to increase, and your necessity for a foreign 
market is becoming more serious every year. The danger of an 
unsold surplus is growing every year to be a greater and greater 
menace to the prosperity of this country. 

What are you going to do about it? You must double what 
you have been doing at least, and that you will I have not a 
shadow of doubt. But you must go further than that — you must 
look to other sources and in other directions for assistance. Your 
most dangerous commercial rival in the next twenty-five years is 
to be Germany ; indeed, she is the only rival you have any oc- 
casion to fear. Her people are economical and very hard work- 
ing. She patterns your machinery the very moment you get it 
out of the inventor's hands; she even patterns your goods, and, 
in some cases, puts them out as American goods. She is deter- 
mined on having the markets of the world, and her Emperor is 
equally determined. She has facilities we have not. Witness 
what they are doing to-day in establishing steamship lines to the 
great East; see what they mean by it. What do they mean by 
taking the Caroline Islands from Spain? What do all their 
preparations to-day foreshadow but a commercial war, fiercer than 
any that has been fought in our time? She does not pay one- 
half the wages to-day in making the identical goods that you do. 
Are you going to cut down yom' wages in order to comjjete with 



22 

her? That would be a menace to the life of the Kepublic itself. 
You cannot cut clown the wages of your workingmen one-half 
to compete with Germany; for, if you do, you then have reduced 
the consuming power of your people one-half, and thus double 
your product. Are you going to stop your mills, or run them on 
half time ? In that way you simply decrease the purchasing 
power of your own people and increase the cost of the product. 
That won't do. 

My own judgment is that several things may contribute to 
success. In the first place, I believe that you ought to carry 
your exports and imports in American ships, under the Ameri- 
can flag. Make every master of an American ship an intelli- 
gent, active agent to find markets for your goods and to dispose 
of them when the markets are found. When you load a cargo 
of goods from Philadelphia m a British ship, do you think the 
British master will help you dispose of it ? He is sure to be 
laggard in the disposition of those goods if he can. The idea 
of our paying $500,000 every day in gold to England and 
Germany to carry our exports and bring our imports is a 
humiliation that this American people ought not to submit to 
longer. 

I have taken a profound interest in the revival of our mer- 
chant marine for a good many years. In 1891 I spent over six 
months in an attempt, and sent for experts from all over the 
United States to come to Washington to assist me in drafting a 
l)ill. We finally agreed upon a Mail Subsidy Bill and a Bounty 
Bill, which were reported by me to the Senate. They both passed 
that body and went to the House, and the House, apparently 
without any knowledge on the subject, deliberately cut down the 
premiums that were to be paid on the Subsidy Bill nearly one 



23 

half, defeated the Bounty Bill by about six votes — it was a Dem- 
ocratic House — passed the Subsidy Bill with the very life, as I 
say, taken out of it, on the last day of the session — too late for a 
remedy. That ended that Subsidy Bill. It was a failure, and a 
dead failure, because the bill had been emasculated. Some peo- 
ple think that if a ten-knot ship uses twenty tons of coal a day, 
a twenty-knot ship ought not to take but forty. But, gentle- 
men, if a ten-knot ship takes twenty tons of coal, a twenty-knot 
ship will take three hundred tons a day and require one hundred 
men to handle it. All that we realized, and that was by way of 
a trade, was four ships called the American Line. I was not a 
free ship man myself, but your plausible, and prevailing, and 
tempting Mr. Griscom persuaded me to let in two of his ships, 
if he would build two just like them here. We let them in, and, 
thank God, we have one American line, and can sail from here 
to England under the American flag. 

I was a good deal discouraged by that attempt, and was quiet 
for several years ; but about three years ago I thought I could see 
that the American people were takmg a new interest in this mat- 
ter of reviving American shipping, and I thought it was a good 
time to try over again. 

I formed a committee of experts in shipping of twenty-five 
on my own responsibility. From Philadelphia I took Mr. Gris- 
com, who knows pretty well about ships; Theodore C. Search, 
as a representative of the manufacturing industries ; Charles H. 
Cramp, as a shipbuilder ; Mr. Mink, who has a large experience 
in the coastwise trade. I selected men who believed in discrimi- 
nating duties, men who believed in bounties, men who believed in 
subsidies, and men who did not believe in either. I made up a 
committee of twenty-five men, and there were never men who de- 



24 

voted so much time to one single piece of legislation as those men 
did to that. 

We finally drafted a bill which, in my judgment will, if it 
becomes a law, place our flag on the ocean once more. It has 
been reported by me to the Senate of the United States. When- 
ever it gets a chance for consideration it will pass the Senate, 
and I hope will the National House of Representatives. If it 
does, we will have agents of our own and ships of our own 
within the next five or ten years to rival the subsidized ships of 
foreign countries, and meet them on equal terms in the great com- 
mercial ports of the world. 

Another thing I would briefly call your attention to. Where 
are you going to look for your export trade? You must look to 
the East. Humboldt said fifty years ago that the Pacific was to 
be the great ocean for the trade of the future. He was a true 
prophet, and we all know it now. The conduct of Russia, Eng- 
land, France and Germany within the last two years shows that 
they recognize the fact that Humboldt was a prophet and an in- 
spired one. 

Now, how can we reach this Eastern trade? How can we get 
our share of it? There is the problem we have to solve. I say 
you should construct an isthmian canal. Make it neutral to all 
the world, if you please, in peace and war; but not neutral with 
a country at war with us. What effect will that canal have? 
It will bring New York city a day's sail nearer Shanghai than 
Liverpool will be, and Liverpool to-day is a great deal nearer 
Shanghai than New York is — thousands of miles nearer. 

Before the Suez Canal was built we were about as near the 
Orient as England, and after we were from three thousand to five 
thousand miles farther off than England, and England has been 



25 

reaping the benefit. Her commerce with the East increased forty 
per cent, from the time that canal was opened up to 1888, and 
only seventeen per cent, to the rest of the world. That shows 
what shortening of distances and lowering of freights do for 
commerce. I repeat that canal will bring New York a day's sail 
nearer to Shanghai than Liverpool will be; 1200 miles nearer 
the northern ports of China, where our trade is to-day and where 
it must be largely in the future; 2000 miles nearer Corea; 1800 
miles nearer Yokohama; 1000 miles nearer Melbourne; 1800 
miles nearer Sydney; more than 2000 miles nearer New Zealand ; 
3000 to 4000 miles nearer to the west coast of South America. 

Look at your map to-day, and you will find that the course 
from New York to the west coast of South America is abso- 
lutely straight. Now, is there an intelligent man here who can- 
not see that the enormous decrease of distance and lessening of 
freight rates are going to enable us to compete with England 
in the Orient, or with Germany, or with any other nation in 
Europe ? 

Our recently acquired possessions will be an enormous help 
for us in this contest for the commerce of the East, and for our 
commerce generally. Under that treaty we acquired, not the 
sovereignty of Cuba, because we yield that to any stable govern- 
ment that may be formed there, which is capable of preserving 
order, protecting life and property, making treaties, insisting 
upon their rights under them, and observing their obligations. 

But to whom will the people of the Island of Cuba owe relief 
from that despotic power of Spain which has ground her into 
the dust for the last two himdred years ? To whom will they 
owe their release from hunger and starvation and death ? To 
whom will they owe their relief from the most ingenious and 



26 

outrageous taxation that was ever imposed upon a people? 
Why, to us. Will not gratitude and propinquity give us the 
trade of that beautiful island? Let a stable government be 
formed ; let peace settle on the island once more ; let American 
capital go there, as it will, and the trade and commerce of that 
island will quadruple in two years, and it will be ours. Puerto 
Rico is ours ; her trade is ours, and will be. 

I should like to digress for a few moments at this point. The 
Republicans in Congress are just now in great disfavor with the 
people. Why ? Because they have voted for a bill imposing a 
duty on goods exported from Puerto Rico to the United States 
eighty-five per cent, less than is exacted under existing law. 
Because the President, in his annual message, advised Congress 
that it was their plain duty to give Puerto Rico free trade with 
our country. They are not aware of the fact that he, on further 
and more careful consideration, approved the bill imposing a 
duty of fifteen per cent, of the Dingley on such goods. Because 
they appreciate the unfortunate condition of the people of that 
island, and are controlled by a most creditable sympathy for 
them, though, in my opinion, a mistaken one ; for I have no 
hesitation in saying that the legislation referred to is more gener- 
ous and effective than free trade would be. 

They are told that the Sugar Trust has cajoled Congress ; as 
if free sugar was not just what that Trust most desires. 

What are the facts? The prmcipal products of the island 
are coffee (free), sugar and tobacco. From the best information 
obtainable, about all the tobacco and sugar have been purchased 
by a few men under the high Dingley duties, the producers hav- 
ing been compelled to discount from their price the duty. If 
these men can export these crops to our country free, they will 



27 

realize an enormous profit, which they will promptly pocket, the 
people of the island receiving no benefit whatever. It is said 
that a British Vice-Consul owns nearly half of the sugar crop, 
and I know that he has been in Washington for two months, 
lobbying for free trade. Under the bill which passed the 
House, the profits of these men are decreased by the amount 
of the duties paid, and the money so saved is given to the 
President to be expended for the benefit of all the people in 
the island. The island must have revenues, and is in no condi- 
.tion to raise them by direct taxation. This will help them out 
until they can provide, by laws of their own, the money neces- 
sary for governmental expenditures, and then this duty will be 
repealed. 

The President advised that all of the duties hitherto collected 
on their products, amounting to $2,095,000, now in our treasury, 
be turned over to him to be expended for the benefit of the 
island. The House promptly passed it, and it wall become a 
law, amended so as to include all duties collected up to the en- 
actment of the law now pending. There never before was a 
possession of this Republic treated so generously. 

Again. Thousands of good Republicans have been insisting 
that our Constitution, by its own force, goes into all of our pos- 
sessions, and that under it we cannot impose any duties on the 
products of Puerto Rico or the Philippine archipelago coming 
into our country, any more than we can on those passing from 
one State to another. 

Have they forgotten that the Republican party had its birth 
largely in opposition to that very doctrine ? It was an inven- 
tion of Calhoun, denounced by Webster and Benton, its sole 
purpose being the extension of slavery into our Territories. One 



28 

of the planks in the platform of our party, on -which we elected 
Abraham Lincoln, was a severe denunciation of this doctrine. 
Yesterday, in the Senate, a vote was had on an amendment, 
offered by a Democrat, reasserting this doctrine, and every Re- 
publican voted agamst it, while every Democrat and Populist 
was recorded for it. (Applause.) Are the Republicans of this 
country prepared to adopt it now ? We are confronted, not by 
a theory, but by a most serious condition. 

While the products of Puerto Rico cannot affect our markets, 
our industries, or our workingraen, the Philippine archipelago 
presents a very different case. When peace is restored there, 
and American capital, with American methods, enter into this 
archipelago — the most productive in the world — sugar and 
tobacco can be produced almost without limit, cigars manufac- 
tured in enormous quantities, all with cheap labor ; and, if the 
Democratic construction is right, imported into our States with- 
out any duty, crippling our beet sugar industry, our tobacco 
raising, and competing disastrously with our cigar manufactur- 
ers, affecting seriously our workingmen. 

The Republicans, recognizing the importance of the question 
under discussion, and the absolute necessity of its settlement by 
the Supreme Court before w'e enter upon legislation for the 
Philippine Islands, imposed this small duty upon the products 
of Puerto Rico, as a practical assertion of their opinion that the 
Constitution did not by its own force extend to our lately ac- 
quired territories. While we treated the Puerto Ricans with ex- 
ceptional generosity, we at the same time took the only course 
to secure an early decision of the court. 

I beg pardon for this digression. (Applause.) 

I said the Puerto Rico trade would be ours. Guam is not 



29 

of much account, but it will be ours. We have civilized it — 
married all the people there who ought to be married — aud 
everything is going on finely. The Philippine archipelago is 
worth a good many islands like Cuba and Puerto Rico. As I 
said a few moments ago, it is the most prolific land in the whole 
world. It has been under Spanish power for three hundred 
years, and has been squeezed like a sponge year after year, and 
one half of its revenues stolen. It has no agricultural imple- 
ments of any kind — modern I mean — only one little railroad 
sixty miles long; no highways; and yet, according to United 
States Commissioner Harden, in 1897, when they had just emerged 
from a rebellion, the exports of the archipelago — with one third 
of the entire product rotting on the ground because they could 
not get it to the sea — the exports amounted to a little over $41,- 
000,000, and the imports to over $17,000,000. The possibili- 
ties of the archipelago are worth looking at. It has almost 
every kind of mineral ; it has magnificent forests ; it has as good 
tillable land as the world affords ; it can raise hemp of the best 
quality without limit, and the demand for it is without limit ; it 
can raise, as I told you, sugar and tobacco almost without limit ; 
it raises okra and rice, and almost all sorts and manner of fruits 
and vegetables. There is coal in almost every island in the 
archipelago. Why, in the island of Cebu, up on a mountain 
top, there is a coal-mine cropping out on the surface. It has 
cropped out for three hundred years, since Spain has been in pos- 
session. It is better coal than the Japanese lump ; and if Spain 
had possession for three hundred years longer, it would still be 
cropping out, and nothing more. It is only fifteen miles from 
the mine to Cebu port, but there is no way of freighting the 
coal that fifteen miles. 



30 

Let the Yankees get in there, and in six months there will be 
a railroad from Cebu port to the Cebu mine ; there will be a 
thousand men Avorkmg that mine ; and they will land that coal 
at the port at five shillings a ton. We have been paying for 
Dewey's coal from ten to twenty dollars a ton. The possibilities 
are enormous. Let us take possession of that arehijielago, con- 
nect it by cable with the United States, as we shall shortly; con- 
nect the various islands by telegraphic communication; build 
railroads where they are necessary ; open up highways ; let us buy 
from the monastic orders the enormous possessions which they 
have in their hands, make it a charge upon the islands, and dis- 
pose of the land m small farms. Let us go on and furnish them 
with agricultural implements of the modern kind ; let us give 
them decent wages, such as we give our own people, and what 
will be the result ? We will quadruple in a few years the pro- 
ductions of the islands. 

Now what shall we do with the archipelago ? It is ours as 
honestly as any part of our territory. Shall we give it back to 
Spain ? If we did wrong in taking it, that is the only honest 
thing to do ; but even that man who said President McKinley 
was a murderer did not suggest that. 

What shall we do with it? Oh, they say, give the people a 
free and independent republican government in the islands — 
a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. 
(Laughter.) There is not an intelligent man who ever spent five 
years in the archipelago ; there is not an army officer or a naval 
officer, from Merritt and Dewey down, who has not declared em- 
phatically that they are utterly incapable of self-government. 
There was not a witness before our Commission in Paris who did 
not declare their incompetency for self-government. That great 



31 

Commission which President McKinley sent over there — and 
they were there a long time — came back and made a unanimous 
report that they were utterly unfit for self-government. Why 
should they be fit ? 

Who has been their schoolmaster for three hundred years? 
Spain. What did she know about free government ? No ; rec- 
ognize a government of theirs, surrender the sovereignty of the 
archipelago to them, and anarchy would result, and the people 
be decimated; or else Europe would step in to protect their 
people, or on pretence to do so, and veiy likely go to war them- 
selves over the division of the spoils. Perhaps we had better 
surrender the sovereignty to Aguinaldo — Washmgton — Lafay- 
ette — Patrick Henry. (Laughter.) 

What does Aguinaldo care about your Constitution ? What 
does he care about the Declaration of Independence ? What 
does he care about a republican government? All he seeks is 
despotic power. Give him that, place a crown on his head, and 
it will be the uneasiest head that ever yet wore one. There 
will be a rival chieftain in every island of the archipelago in less 
than six months. 

Perhaps we had better sell them. You can do so to good ad- 
vantage. I was informed a few days ago that there was a syndi- 
cate in Hong Kong ready to pay $400,000,000 for the islands. 
Sell them ? Would not that be a spectacle for gods and men ! 

What shall we do with the archipelago ? I do not believe 
that the voice of the American people can possibly be mistaken ; 
I do not believe there would be any uncertain sound. Ameri- 
cans are not inclined to surrender territories they have acquired. 
When Canada demands a little bit of the frozen regions of 
Alaska, you American people are almost ready to go to war with 



32 

England to prevent their having it. The American people, for 
the good of the people of the archipelago, and for our own, will 
hold these islands. We will give them a good government, 
relieve them from slavery, from outrageous and burdensome tax- 
ation ; we will employ their people ; give them decent wages ; 
we will, as I said before, buy the immense real estate of the 
monastic orders, cut it up into small farms and sell them to the 
people at a fair price ; we will make them a charge to the archi- 
pelago, and in a few years the archipelago will pay the entire 
charge without feeling it ; we will build them railroads and high- 
ways ; we will construct schoolhouses and furnish them with 
school-teachers ; we will respect their civil and religious rights ; 
will give them freedom — all the freedom that is consistent with 
law — we will let them, so far as they can, direct their municipal 
and local affairs ; w^e will educate and train them into the power 
of governing themselves, and it is barely possible that in time, 
under our guidance, under our instruction, they may become able 
to establish a stable government there, capable of preserving peace 
and protecting life and property, making treaties, observing 
their obligations under them and compelling others to do so ; 
then possibly the American people might surrender the sover- 
eignty to such a government as that, reserving for themselves 
the necessary naval and coaling stations. So far, however, as I 
am concerned, I never would surrender the sovereignty of that 
archipelago to any people within the islands or to any nation 
without. (Applause.) 

This archipelago is infinitely more important from a com- 
mercial, strategic point of view than from any commerce of its 
own. There it is, right in the front door of the Orient, with 
700,000,000 or 800,000,000 people, who imported last year $1,- 



33 

500,000,000 worth of goods, and, with their increasing civiliza- 
tion, will in a short time double that importation. It gives us a 
potent voice in the East, and that voice has already been heard 
for the first time. Russia, Germany, France and England pro- 
posed to divide up China, closing the door against our exports ; 
and for the first time in our history our State Department made 
a diplomatic demand that our treaty rights in China should be 
respected, and that the nations of Europe should not close the 
doors ; and the nations of Europe have replied that they will not. 
(Applause.) Suppose that our State Department two years ago 
had sent such a demand to Europe. It is not supposable that 
they would have sent it, but if they had, it would have been re- 
ceived with a sneer. For the first time we have an immense 
power in the East, simply because we are to-day a part of it. 
The nations of the earth to-day are close together. They stand 
shoulder to shoulder ; they heard the thunder of Dewey's guns ; 
and for the first time they recognized this Republic as a great 
world power. Shall we alone of all the people of the earth refuse 
to recognize that stupendous fact. You have commercial treaties 
with China that guarantee the reception of your goods into that 
immense empire of 300,000,000 or 400,000,000 people on the 
terms of the most favored nations. Do you propose to lose the 
benefit of those treaties ? Do you propose to allow Germany or 
France to violate them ? They would have done it with impu- 
nity two years ago ; they will not now. They heard Dewey's guns, 
and they know we are there now. No ; we never will surrender 
the Philippines. 

Then I am an expansionist, am I ? Yes, I am, and I am in 
the best company a man ever was in. When this Republic 
started, we had about 800,000 square miles of territory, a little 



ofO. 



34 

strip of land along the Atlantic coast. In 1803 we made tlie 
Louisiana purchase, and acquired 1,170,000 square miles of ter- 
ritory — North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washing- 
ton, Oregon, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and Louisiana. 
There was a frightful outcry, a good deal more serious than was 
heard in Philadelphia the other day, a good deal louder than 
that raised in Boston to-day. Our Constitution was in splinters; 
the Declaration of Independence was treated with contempt ; 
the country was ruined, the Republic gone. Josiah Quincy — 
he was from Massachusetts — discussing in Congress this purchase 
of 1803, said : 

" The Constitution never was and never can be strained to 
leap over the wilderness of the West. (Ohio was part of the 
' wilderness of the West.') I say it never was intended to form a 
covering for Missouri and the Red river country. Attempt to 
stretch it over this, and it will be rent asunder. You have no 
authority to throw the rights, liberties and prosperity of this 
people into the hodge-podge with the wild men of Missouri, or 
with the mixed races basking on the sands of the Mississippi. 
It will be the death-blow to the Constitution." 

In 1819 we took Florida, another outcry; in 1845 Texas, 
another outcry ; in 1848 New Mexico and California, another 
outcry ; in 1867 Alaska, another outcry. We started with 800,- 
000 square miles of territory, and we left off with 2,800,000 
square miles ; we never sold a rod of it, and the Constitu- 
tion still lives, and the Declaration of Independence still shines. 

Now, gentlemen, do you not think we can stand Puerto Rico, 
Guam and the Philippine archipelago and survive ? Gentlemen, 
bear your burdens patiently, accept your responsibilities cour- 
ageously, discharge your duties intelligently and with fidelity, 



35 

and this Eepublic, under the guidance of Almighty God, will 
prosper and live through the ages. (Applause.) 

When the Senator concluded his speech and resumed his seat, 
Colonel E,. Dale Benson said : 

Mr. President, there cannot be a gentleman present here to- 
night who does not appreciate the compliment that has come to 
us in that we have as an honored guest the Presiding Officer of 
the United States Senate ; nor are we unmindful of the kindly ex- 
pressions made in regard to this institution and the great city of 
Philadelphia ; but a greater obligation rests upon us, one and all, 
for the very interesting, able and comprehensive address which 
has been presented to us on one of the most vital and burnmg 
questions which this nation has ever had under consideration. 
I therefore move you, sir, that Senator Frye be requested to ac- 
cept the grateful thanks of The Union League of Philadelphia 
for the courtesies of the evening. 

The motion was seconded by a chorus of voices, and unani- 
mously carried. 



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